Watercolor Dandelions

Here is watercolor dandelion lesson I did with my daughter's Grade 2/3 class.  I am so happy with the results!

Students had a 6X9 piece of watercolor paper.  Using baby food jar lids and a pencil, they lightly traced a row of circles, overlapping as they went across from one edge of the paper to the other.  They were instructed not to go straight across but randomly up and down.

Then they had to erase any overlapping lines within 2 of the circles (to create the white dandelions) and then erase any other overlapping lines for the rest of the circles to create depth.

For the yellow dandelions they used their glue cap lids to trace smaller circles in the bigger ones.  They used lines to create the details of the dandelions and the stems.  When done they traced all the pencil lines, except the circles, with a sharpie.  Then they erased ALL the pencil.

Next they used their white crayons to trace around the white dandelion shape and coloured it in.  This softened the dark lines and also created a resist for the paint we later added. 

Then they used a yellow crayon to trace around the outside of the yellow dandelions.

Next the students painted the dandelions with yellow paint.

Then they brushed the bottom of their papers with water before adding paint in 2 different shades of green.  They did the same for the sky - choosing 2 colours of paint to create either a warm or cool sky.

   

      

  

For another dandelion lesson (seen below) click HERE

Bird's Eye View Dandelion in Oil Pastel

Sunflowers

On Earth Day my Grade 1 students planted sunflower seeds.  The plants are now at varying stages of growth and the children excitedly check on their own plant each morning.  I thought the children would enjoy creating some bright sunflower artwork.

We created these sunflower paintings using the same cut sponges used in my

Christmas Poinsettias. 

Day One:  We made our petals by painting the sponges and then stamping them onto our papers.  We drew a small circle with pencil as a reference point and then worked our way around it.  We then used green paint to add a stem and sponged leaves onto the stem.

Day Two:  We used brown oil pastels to colour in the center circle of the sunflower.  We then used orange and green pencil crayons to add texture lines to the petals, stem and leaves.  The final step was to use blue pastel to colour in the background.

 The make our classroom very bright and cheery!

Dandelions: Bird's Eye View

I'm think I'm obsessed with dandelions!!!

I promised my daughter's teacher that I would come into her classroom at the end of this month to do a painting project.  I decided on a simple watercolour dandelion.  While searching different images I found this interesting quilt pattern and was instantly inspired: 

I originally found this on this blog http://woodhavenstudio.wordpress.com/ but can no longer locate the photo and would love to give credtit to the designer.



I wish that I could do this project as well as the painting activity but unfortunately with all the year end events and feeling the crunch of report cards creeping up, I'm just not going to have the time.  But here is how I did it:

You will need:

9 X 9 piece of green construction paper

oil pastels